Dry firing M&Pc

[Szumi]

I bought a M&P40c last month and was wondering if it can withstand dry firing? Many modern guns can handle it, is this one?

Thanks,

Szumi

 

[OKFC05]

Yes, according to S&W.

 

[ptiller]

My understand is yes.

 

[GaryM&P]

It depends on the color of the striker. Silver strikers are good to go. Black strikers have been known to break from dry firing.

 

[BobRowe]

I had a striker break on my full size M&P 9 after about 100 life rounds and 800 dry fires. S&W sent me a free replacement striker assembly. Just for insurance, I now use snap caps in all my M&P pistols for dry firing.

 

[kris7047th]

Snap caps are a must, and not just for trigger practice ... when jammed it's great practice to clear the malf quickly, and change to a new mag.

 

[PersonalSecurity]

It depends on the color of the striker. Silver strikers are good to go. Black strikers have been known to break from dry firing.

Exactly correct. I'm getting a little tired of typing this, but it helps a lot of people, so until I decide to make a thread on it and someone stickies it, I'll just keep typing it.

This may not help you since you already bought the gun, but it could help you also. When looking to buy an M&P, look for a "stepped" rear sight vs. the traditional sloped sight. The notched sight - which is used for single hand malfunction drills off a belt buckle, boot, pant leg, etc. - is the newest version of the M&P.

S&W has quietly introduced some improvements to the M&P over the years. The biggest ones are the improved extractor and the improved striker. The new strikers are stainless steel while the old ones were black. If you already own an M&P, lock the slide back and look under the slide above the beavertail of the grip - silver or black?

As I mentioned, the notched ledge sight was the last improvement to the platform, so these models have all the improvements. The new striker is rated for over 100,000 dryfires (without snap caps) by S&W. The improved extractor is a big improvement also worth the pain of finding the most recent models.

You can also make sure your gun was made in 2010 to be sure it has the improvements (for people looking online w/o pictures or guns w/ night sights). To find the date of the pistol, you will need to have the seller (or gun shop) give you the 4 digit number located just below the SKU number on the white sticker that is on the side of the box. IT IS NOT PART OF THE SKU! It is below it on the right side and in slightly smaller print.

If the number is "0120", as an example, I will show you how to tell the date it was made. The first number, 0 in our example, stands for the year. 0 would mean 2010. A "9" would mean 2009, "8" 2008, etc.
The next set of 3 numbers, in our example "120", stands for the day of the year it was made. So "0120" means that it was made on the 120th day of 2010 - or sometime in the beginning of May 2010. If the number was "8020" then it was made on January 20th, 2008.

The old strikers (black ones) are VERY prone to breaking from dryfire without snap caps. This is pretty well documented and S&W obviously fixed it in a visual manner with the stainless strikers. Smith has a great lifetime warranty, but the bummer with the old striker is that it could very well break or have already broke prior to the "worst possible time". A broken pistol is just a crappy club if it doesn't work in a self defense situation.

If you have the old black striker, you have a few options. APEX makes an improved striker priced very reasonably that is said to be slightly better than even S&W's own improved striker. Another option would be to shoot it until it breaks, then have the gun repaired. A last option would be to.... send me an email so I can talk to you more about it and how to fix it!

Hope this helps some people.

Steve

 

[PersonalSecurity]

Snap caps are a must, and not just for trigger practice ... when jammed it's great practice to clear the malf quickly, and change to a new mag.

This is a very good point. I've used snap caps to teach people good malfunction clearance drills before. The best part is, you can safely set up a malfunction such as a double feed, stovepipe, etc. I wouldn't say they are a must - since most people wouldn't know how to use them to their fullest - but they are definately nice. If you think $15 for a set up snap caps (or however much they are now) is too much, then keep some empty shell casings. You can use these to give a little cushion for dryfire and even set up some malfunction drills if you know how to use the casings correctly. In short though - either practice malfunction drills without rounds (a very viable option - the snap caps aren't needed to go through the motions for the most part) or just cough up the money for a nice set of snap caps.

Also, a great way to break in a trigger is to fire it. As far as the fire control parts polishing themselves, you don't have to actually shoot it. Just dryfiring the gun will smooth things out a lot. Many people buy an M&P and start putting in new sears and trigger kits. These kits work well but light triggers aren't for everyone. Also, not all triggers are created equal. I talked to someone on here recently whose OEM trigger has smoothed out to 3.5 pounds! I'm sure that 3.5 pounds is the exception - and definately not the rule, but the point stands. Don't mess with your fire control parts until you've put between 500-1k rounds through the gun. Sometimes metal parts have a nice way of coming together. There is also the issue of reduced over travel at the expense of pre travel in these trigger kits, but that is for an entirely different discussion.

Anyways, get some snap caps because they can do a lot of things well. Then dryfire the hell out of the gun. Fire it while watching TV everynight if need be. Remember, you only need to rack the slide about 1/8 of the way to the rear to reset the striker to fire. So pull the slide a little, fire, and repeat. This will save the wear and tear on the guide rod spring too.

Again, hope this helped!

Steve

 

[kris7047th]

The 4.5 trigger pull adjustment/new sear may very well be too light for many guys, but I am a lady with much weakers fingers, especially when my index finger was permanently injured from a childhood accident. The lighter trigger pull enables me to shoot correctly, as before I would incorrectly punch the trigger, thus shoot low & left. I am much more accurate and confident with the lighter trigger. It's perfect for me. Hmm on the SN dating.. my compact is DXX4934.. date on the box is April (I get the 4) but the other three numbers do not match.

 

[BobRowe]

Hmm on the SN dating.. my compact is DXX4934.. date on the box is April (I get the 4) but the other three numbers do not match.

The number he was alking about is NOT the serial number of the firearm, but rather it is another number printed on the box the firearm came in, just below the SKU number.

 

[kris7047th]

Thanks for further explaining!

 

[bronco45]

Thank you Steve for the info on both the date coding and the color coding of parts.

I'm going to check my M&Ps now.

 

[TOF]

I have found most of the crunchy trigger to be caused by the trigger bar to safety block interface and some trigger bar to sear. It is not necessary to cock the sear in order to smooth those zones by dry firing. Simply pulling and releasing the trigger a bunch of times will smooth out much of the roughness. The trigger bar is stamped from sheet stock and has minute roughness on the edges which wears away with use.

I have stoned and polished, used Apex parts and simply allowed wear to smooth out triggers on the 4 M&P's purchased to date. all approaches have resulted in nice triggers although the Apex Tactical parts took the least time.

The degree of roughness was unique to each of the 4.

Enjoy the journey.

 

[PersonalSecurity]

The 4.5 trigger pull adjustment/new sear may very well be too light for many guys, but I am a lady with much weakers fingers, especially when my index finger was permanently injured from a childhood accident. The lighter trigger pull enables me to shoot correctly, as before I would incorrectly punch the trigger, thus shoot low & left. I am much more accurate and confident with the lighter trigger. It's perfect for me. Hmm on the SN dating.. my compact is DXX4934.. date on the box is April (I get the 4) but the other three numbers do not match.

Nothin beats a nice light trigger, I'm with you on that. As long as someone can handle the gun, I always suggest lightening the M&P trigger. 4.5 is a perfect pull in my opinion.

One can make the M&P break like a nice 1911 with the correct trigger work.

 

[PersonalSecurity]

I have found most of the crunchy trigger to be caused by the trigger bar to safety block interface and some trigger bar to sear. It is not necessary to cock the sear in order to smooth those zones by dry firing. Simply pulling and releasing the trigger a bunch of times will smooth out much of the roughness. The trigger bar is stamped from sheet stock and has minute roughness on the edges which wears away with use.

I have stoned and polished, used Apex parts and simply allowed wear to smooth out triggers on the 4 M&P's purchased to date. all approaches have resulted in nice triggers although the Apex Tactical parts took the least time.

The degree of roughness was unique to each of the 4.

Enjoy the journey.

This is a really good piece of information. And the first I've heard of this approach. Thank you sir!

Steve

 

[rangemeister]

Great info. I have wondered how to date some of my Smiths and this clears up the M&P!

Dry firing with a snap cap? I don't think I need to, but prefer I did!

 

[SWMod10]

Exactly correct. I'm getting a little tired of typing this, but it helps a lot of people, so until I decide to make a thread on it and someone stickies it, I'll just keep typing it.

This may not help you since you already bought the gun, but it could help you also. When looking to buy an M&P, look for a "stepped" rear sight vs. the traditional sloped sight. The notched sight - which is used for single hand malfunction drills off a belt buckle, boot, pant leg, etc. - is the newest version of the M&P.

S&W has quietly introduced some improvements to the M&P over the years. The biggest ones are the improved extractor and the improved striker. The new strikers are stainless steel while the old ones were black. If you already own an M&P, lock the slide back and look under the slide above the beavertail of the grip - silver or black?

As I mentioned, the notched ledge sight was the last improvement to the platform, so these models have all the improvements. The new striker is rated for over 100,000 dryfires (without snap caps) by S&W. The improved extractor is a big improvement also worth the pain of finding the most recent models.

You can also make sure your gun was made in 2010 to be sure it has the improvements (for people looking online w/o pictures or guns w/ night sights). To find the date of the pistol, you will need to have the seller (or gun shop) give you the 4 digit number located just below the SKU number on the white sticker that is on the side of the box. IT IS NOT PART OF THE SKU! It is below it on the right side and in slightly smaller print.

If the number is "0120", as an example, I will show you how to tell the date it was made. The first number, 0 in our example, stands for the year. 0 would mean 2010. A "9" would mean 2009, "8" 2008, etc.
The next set of 3 numbers, in our example "120", stands for the day of the year it was made. So "0120" means that it was made on the 120th day of 2010 - or sometime in the beginning of May 2010. If the number was "8020" then it was made on January 20th, 2008.

The old strikers (black ones) are VERY prone to breaking from dryfire without snap caps. This is pretty well documented and S&W obviously fixed it in a visual manner with the stainless strikers. Smith has a great lifetime warranty, but the bummer with the old striker is that it could very well break or have already broke prior to the "worst possible time". A broken pistol is just a crappy club if it doesn't work in a self defense situation.

If you have the old black striker, you have a few options. APEX makes an improved striker priced very reasonably that is said to be slightly better than even S&W's own improved striker. Another option would be to shoot it until it breaks, then have the gun repaired. A last option would be to.... send me an email so I can talk to you more about it and how to fix it!

Hope this helps some people.

Steve

Steve...I sent you a email..